Malaria is an infectious disease caused by protozoans of the genus Plasmodium, and is transmitted by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. The species P. falciparum accounts for the preponderance of global morbidity and mortality, and 41 percent of the world's population live in areas where malaria is endemic. Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease but it is estimated to kill one to three million people each year, primarily young children.
Artemisinin is a potent anti-malarial agent produced naturally in the plant Artemisia annua. Malaria has become increasingly resistant to first-line drug therapies, but combination drugs containing artemisinin derivatives show nearly 100 percent effectiveness against the malaria parasite. Production of sufficient quantities of artemisinin from natural sources to meet current global demands suffers from a combination of low yield, difficulty of isolating pure compounds, and resource-intensive cultivation.
There is a need in the art for alternative methods of producing artemisinin.
Literature
Carmichael and Wong (2001) Eur. J. Biochem. 268:3117; Ravichandran et al. (1993) Science 261:731; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0063226; Ro et al. (2006) Nature 440:940.